The field of the disclosure relates generally to management of linear media over electronic networks, and more particularly, to management and control of integrated search and delivery of linear content across linear and non-linear platforms.
A Multichannel Video Programming Distributor (MVPD) is a content provider or service provider, such as a cable operator, that delivers video programming services over one or more channels, typically under a subscription agreement with a subscriber or client. Subscribers may typically view available programming services on a user interface (UI), which may include a display device operating with an interactive browser. Conventional browsers utilize Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) for the structure, organization, and content of the browser display. Recently though, HTML5 is being more widely utilized as a substitute for older HTML protocols. HTML5 is a bundled hybrid of HTML, cascading style sheets (CSS), and JavaScript, and the bundled hybrid has proven more agile than HTML, more usable by mobile devices, and more compatible across different browsers, particularly for cross-platform application development, such as linear video streaming.
Growing use of HTML5, however, has created difficulties for MVPD content providers. The increasing versatility of HTML5 has blurred the line between linear and non-linear media applications, which were once defined by the ability to interact with the delivered content. Initially, linear television channels that offer video programs on specific channels, at specific times of day, were considered linear content, whereas video-on-demand (VoD) services were considered non-linear, or “over the top,” content. Today though, a digitally streaming movie that was once considered to be linear content, may now also be non-linear due to the addition of DVD and DVR formats allows that provide a user the ability to select scenes within the movie and move both forward and backward within the content.
The advent of HTML5 has blurred these linear/non-linear content lines even further. Under older HTML coding, streaming content was experienced on a device or application configured to receive and experience the content as intended by the MVPD. The cross-platform capabilities of HTML5 though, allow linear content configured for one type of device to be experienced on a different type of device for which the content was not configured. In one example, cable television subscribers may experience their cable linear content on a device that is not in communication with their cable set top box (STB), such as a smartphone, table, or laptop computer (typically in cooperation with an MVPD application loaded on the particular non-MVPD device). In some instances, these non-MVPD devices, either directly or through competing applications loaded on the device, are capable of altering or interrupting the linear content in a way that is not intended or desired by the MVPD.
Conventional MVPDs control most of the viewing experience, including information a viewer receives about programming, opportunities to view or purchase on-demand programming, and information about adding premium channels. Recent FCC proposals utilize HTML5 to “unlock” the STB to permit non-MVPD entities to control various aspects of the viewing experience. For example, it has been noted that, under the proposed scheme, a third-party STB could potentially run on Android, while opportunities to purchase on-demand programming could be driven through the Google Play Store. In this example, the linear content from the STB is not significantly affected.
In another example, however, an MVPD may deliver a telecast of a sporting event as linear content, along with paid commercial advertisements. A viewer or subscriber of the telecast may experience both the sports telecast itself, as well as any paid commercial advertisements that are provided with the linear content. A non-MVPD device, however, may be configured such that a third party server or operator of the non-MVPD device might add or substitute its own commercial advertising throughout the linear sports telecast. The viewer might see only the sports telecast, but not the commercials attached thereto. Such additions or substitutions could negatively affect the revenue and contractual agreements made by the MVPD with its advertisers.
Accordingly, it is desirable for an MVPD to allow its subscribers to experience the linear content through non-MVPD devices, but without permitting alteration or interruption of the linear content by the non-MVPD device.